older machines - memory requirements

**handyman** · 03-07-2003, 02:42 PM

Do the memory requirements specified for Knoppix include only physical memory (RAM), or do they also include any swap?

I'm wondering about being able to run Knoppix on older machines that typically have 32M or less of RAM. I'd like to be able to run X, as well as several applications, (though not Open Office). On an older machine with 32M or less of RAM, but with a hard drive on which, say, 256M were setup as swap, would it work?

**RockMumbles** · 03-07-2003, 07:35 PM

I have a P-166 w/ 32mb RAM and have run Knoppix on it, it is SLOW! Since knoppix wants to run in ram as much as possible it will be swapping out continuously. I wouldn't even try to run KDE, twm would be the best wm as it is so bare (unfortuanately for me it is partially in German), xfce or icewm should also be usable w/ 32 mb. Ex: Dillo would be your best graphical browser. Small simple, fast apps should be fine (if you're patient).

HTH

rock

**Dave_Bechtel** · 03-10-2003, 08:25 AM

--I think you can get knoppix to *boot* with ~20MB of RAM (certainly NOT any less), but running X and multiple apps as well? "It's a nice place to experiment with, but I wouldn't want to live there!"

--Seriously, unless it's a laptop - UPGRADE the RAM.

Originally Posted by handyman

Do the memory requirements specified for Knoppix include only physical memory (RAM), or do they also include any swap?

I'm wondering about being able to run Knoppix on older machines that typically have 32M or less of RAM. I'd like to be able to run X, as well as several applications, (though not Open Office). On an older machine with 32M or less of RAM, but with a hard drive on which, say, 256M were setup as swap, would it work?

**rickenbacherus** · 03-11-2003, 08:19 PM

It isn't a bootable cd distro but it works on machines without much RAM.

http://www.ibiblio.org/vectorlinux/

I've installed it to a Toshiba laptop 90MHz 28MB ram using XFCE it works quite well.